Page:The Brittish Princes, an Heroick Poem - Howard (1669, 1st ed).djvu/5

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The Epistle Dedicatory.

ties of my Muse have been able (though with the advantage of fiction) to make their glories: And if you judge it worth the entertaining some minutes of your leisure, I shall think it wants no Dignity, it being my greater ambition, to publish my respects to you, than to court fame, which the world so sparingly bestowes, as if there were no consideration for desert in any kind; nor are the spirits of men less satisfied in any accomplishment, than in the value of wit, which seldom misses the Allay of detraction, as it passes the world; where if it meets a due Reception from the Generous, and truely Ingenious, the labour of lines is enough rewarded; amongstwhom,